Implicit Bias Training for San Antonio Police Officers

Implicit bias is a concept acquiring some attention. The theory is that as human we have subconscious biases. I have written about the theory before. See my prior post here. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the theory in Texas Dept. ofHousing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive CommunitiesProject, Inc., 135 S.Ct. 2517 (2015). The theory is we tend to filter out certain information based on subconscious biases.

The San Antonio Police Department apparently sees some value in the theory. They have asked Dr. Lorie Fridell, an expert on law enforcement and biases to provide the local law enforcement agency with training on how to deal with biases. In this day of police shootings, one has to consider the possibility that bias may play some role. Too many African-Americans and other minorities have reported being stopped by law enforcement for little or no reason.

The police union opposes the training, saying it starts from the standpoint of racial bias and that officers do not know what they are doing. See San Antonio Express Newscolumn by Brian Chasnoff. No, at least, not as I understand the concept. What implicit bias starts with is the standpoint that we are human, with human weaknesses.